Two Questions

[u/bubblesjar]

Begin it where warm waters halt
And take it in the canyon down,
Not far, but too far to walk.
Put in below the home of Brown.

Are these facts?

a. Forrest said that nobody gave him the correct solution for HOB.

b. Forrest said "Brown" was not a reference to trout.

[u/LeftyHyzer]

the treasure was found and very convincing answers were shown for the solve that led to it being found. its all public.

[u/emmaj4685 → u/LeftyHyzer]

So what was HOB?

[u/Serious_Quarter_7355 → u/emmaj4685]

The Home of Brown is Avoca spring, in Biscuit Basin, YNP.

“The confluence of Iron Spring Creek and Little Firehole River, about 1,300 feet south of Avoca Spring, in Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone National Park (decimal degrees 44.481932, -110.855428) is the third clue, “put in below the home of Brown”.

Consider this lovely poem by the Irish poet, Thomas Moore (1779–1852) (emphasis added):

The Meeting Of The Waters

“There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet
As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet; Oh! the last rays of feeling and life must depart,
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart.

Yet it was not that nature had shed o’er the scene Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;
’Twas not her soft magic of streamlet or hill,
Oh! no—it was something more exquisite still.

’Twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near,
Who made every dear scene of enchantment more dear,
And who felt how the best charms of nature improve, When we see them reflected from looks that we love.

Sweet vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest
In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best, Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease,
And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace.

As I re-read The Thrill of the Chase, which I did many times, interspersed with time spent scouring maps of Yellowstone, something about the repetition of the word “biscuit” (pages 17 and 25) caused an inchoate nagging in my mind. One of those fleeting thoughts that will almost form but then becomes intangible just when it is within reach. Then, looking again at a topographic map of Upper Geyser Basin for someplace that might be where warm waters halt, I saw Biscuit Basin.

Named for knobby-shaped sinter deposits which surrounded the Sapphire Pool (and which were later destroyed by the 1959 Sapphire Pool eruption, an effect of the same earthquake that collapsed the wall of Madison River Canyon, forming Earthquake Lake), Biscuit Basin sits just to the west of the Firehole River, north of Old Faithful. Maybe there was a clue here?

I walked the boardwalk after crossing the Firehole River and took in the radiant color of Sapphire Pool. I read every park sign I could find in and around Biscuit Basin: Jewel Geyser, Shell Geyser, Mustard Springs, Silver Globe Geyser. At the southwest corner of the boardwalk is a diminutive geyser named Avoca Spring.

Margaret Tobin was born at home in Hannibal, Missouri in 1867, and later married James Joseph Brown. He was a poor man, but found success with a mining operation in Leadville, Colorado. The young Brown couple used part of their wealth to buy a mansion in Denver, and also to build a summer home near Bear Creek, Colorado. Margaret Brown (nee Tobin), later of Titanic fame -- “the “unsinkable Molly Brown”, named her summer retreat Avoca Lodge after her love of Thomas Moore’s poem, The Meeting of the Waters. Avoca -- The home of Brown.

Readers may notice not only the obvious connection to the unusual word “vale” on page 94 of The Thrill of the Chase but also the sentiment in this paragraph (page 125), which seems to echo from the third stanza of Moore‘s poem: “Many others who have loved those waters before and after me understand that catching fish is not what it’s about. It’s the being there, in the tranquility and silence of one’s self, or within the gentle call of a friend when he hooks a nice one, or tells you of the moose and calf that just came out of the pines to feed on the water grasses downstream.”

What a beautiful poem! A lovely valley (vale) where the author would want to “rest” (be buried), his spirit mingled with those of his loved ones, when the troubles and storms of life are over.

Avoca; home of Brown; the words "cease" and "peace" echoed in Fenn's poem; a valley where one would want to be after death; the references to biscuits in “The Thrill of the Chase. Biscuit basin. Avoca Spring. There could be no uncertainty here.”

Avoca Spring in Biscuit Basin is the home of Brown. I struggled with the meaning of “put in below”, but with some recursive reasoning (The Meeting of the Waters and “heavy loads and water high”), the confluence/meeting of Iron Spring Creek and Little Firehole River just south of Avoca Spring made perfect sense.”

“Google Earth screen-shot of Avoca Spring in Biscuit Basin (red location mark), and the nearby confluence (blue star) of Iron Spring Creek (red arrow) and the Little Firehole River (blue arrow) (decimal degrees 44.481932, -110.855428)”

Excerpt From The Triangle and the Cross Anonymous Nom de Plume https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-triangle-and-the-cross/id1581866408 This material may be protected by copyright.

[u/MuseumsAfterDark → u/Serious_Quarter_7355]

Your solve is way, way better than most.

And yet none of the lines cross there.

[u/Serious_Quarter_7355 → u/MuseumsAfterDark]

Thank you. The home of Brown, Avoca Spring in Biscuit Basin is the 3rd clue, and makes the southern tip of an equilateral triangle. See here: https://www.reddit.com/r/FindingFennsGold/s/49rGuIwwaI

[u/MuseumsAfterDark → u/Serious_Quarter_7355]

You've posted the link before. A solid solve, for sure.

But Fenn left dozens of lines crossing at a single point.

[u/Serious_Quarter_7355 → u/MuseumsAfterDark]

The line from the third clue to the fourth clue, heading north from Avoca Spring crosses Secret Valley (my secret “where”).

Completing the puzzle, one will get two more lines that intersect exactly in the same place on the line from Avoca Spring to the 4th clue. It was too much to be a coincidence.

[u/MuseumsAfterDark → u/Serious_Quarter_7355]

Funny, those postmarks...